Castle Aching

[Nearholmer]

Churchill’s sunlit uplands were definitely broad, but I think he borrowed them from Bunyan, and I’m not sure whether his were or not.

[Buhar]

I'm not convinced by the notion that sunlit uplands, broad or not, are a good idea. They tend to be uphill from me and I am a lazy beggar in respect of country walks. A sun-dappled glen with a nice pub garden would tempt me. 

Alan 

[TT-Pete]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

Funnily, I've just read through that part of Men At Arms. 

 

"He picked up the mallet again.

'Now, what were we going for today? Decisiveness, yes?'

'Yes. Well, no. Maybe.'

'Right.' Zorgo took aim. 'This,' he said with absolute truth, 'won't hurt a bit.'"

Terry Pratchett. Men at Arms

 

 

I am also using this time to go back through the canon, currently just coming to the end of Mort and as yet undecided whether to go for Small Gods or Maurice and his educated rodents next. I've been carting my books around with me through countless house moves across several countries for over 30 years and it makes me a little nostalgic and wistful to pick up a battered volume, look at the publication date and remember where I was and what I was doing when I first read it back in nineteen eighty/ninety something...

 

[Compound2632]

Churchill's uplands were both broad and sunlit. If he had them from Bunyan, they propably need to be taken in the contexct of the topography of Bedfordshire, of which I am largely ignorant except in so far as it affected the gradient profile of the Midland's Leicester and Hitchin and London Extension lines - from which I conclude that there are uplands to north and south of the county town.

[TT-Pete]

On 14/04/2020 at 08:15, Annie said:

 

 

The Air Piano World Championship 1920 by any chance?

 

[Edwardian]

17 minutes ago, TT-Pete said:

 

The Air Piano World Championship 1920 by any chance?

 

 

You've just made my morning with that!  GOL ("guffaw out loud", which, though as a phrase is as redundant as "laugh out loud" (how common is laughing in silence), but at least, I feel, more Pre-Grouping)).

[Nearholmer]

48 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

in the context of the topography of Bedfordshire

 

Coming north from London:

 

- decidedly broad (bare) uplands of the Dunstable Downs, proper chalk downland;

 

- broad flat bit;

 

- quite heavily wooded (but were they in C17th?) uplands of the greensand ridge, which is where Bunyan lived;

 

- valley of the Ouse and associated tributaries, including Bedford itself, which is over soft limestone, with hills where it hasn't been eroded by the rivers;

 

- a lumpy bit that I wouldn't really call 'uplands', which is where Sharnbrook summit is on the MR, which I think is a harder limestone (the course of the Ouse suggests that the river fought shy of trying to erode this bit), small woods and fields.

 

So, I think Bunyan had a choice of "wooded and rumpled" and "broad and bare" within easy walking distance!

 

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Nearholmer

[webbcompound]

18 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

You've just made my morning with that!  GOL ("guffaw out loud", which, though as a phrase is as redundant as "laugh out loud" (how common is laughing in silence), but at least, I feel, more Pre-Grouping)).

 

Of course the existentialists have the secret "sourire en l'ame" (translated by my french teacher as a "soul smirk") which is almost certainely a precursor to silent (hollow) laughing

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Churchill’s sunlit uplands were definitely broad, but I think he borrowed them from Bunyan

I’ve got one of those on my foot.

 

47 minutes ago, webbcompound said:

 

Of course the existentialists have the secret "sourire en l'ame" (translated by my french teacher as a "soul smirk") which is almost certainely a precursor to silent (hollow) laughing

Possibly the smile generated by a witticism, as opposed to the guffaw of a joke?

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

Just spoke with my lovely Scottish neighbours over the fence this evening as I made a very rare expedition to the letterbox at the end of the drive. (The sun! the sun! it burns....!  Actually the sun just set so I'm being silly.)

Mr Scottish had been involved in a motor accident some months ago through no fault of his own and it's been a long road back to being able to do simple things like take a walk around the garden or even being able to stand on his feet unaided.  Anyway he was signed off by his doctors as being fine to go back to work again and a week later our government announced the level 4 lockdown here so he was sent home for the duration.  Mrs Scottish is of course delighted since she was worried her husband might get the virus with going back to work.

But typical Sods Law.  Months of working on getting fit and well again to go back to work and barely getting his feet under his desk and he's sent back home again.

 

 

Yes I noted that NZ had upped to Stage 4 - I'm hoping we don't. The governments both federal and state are reluctant due to economic costs, and touch wood as the new infection rate has been declining now for almost a week there won't be any need. Australians generally have been very self-isolating. The highest number of infections were in New South Wales and a great many of those were due to the foolish decision to let passengers from the Corvid-19 infected cruise ship (petri dish) Ruby Princess disembark - there's currently a police investigation into that idiot decision. That ship is now locked down in quarantine but not before the virus took off. Meanwhile we all steadily go mad with Stage 3.     

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

And speaking of broad sunlit uplands how about some sheep covered ones courtesy of the pre-Raphaelites. Yes I know it's been on before but it is a pleasant vista in these strange times.

 

 

[Mrkirtley800]

On 13/04/2020 at 05:02, Annie said:

In general Rob I find that most railway modellers are curious about the digital medium and what it can do.  There will always be some who will stand back and call me a cheat and a heretic with cries of, 'That's not real railway modelling!' - but they seem to be in the minority.  Having been a railway modeller ever since my very first clockwork Hornby trainset back when I was but a young slip of a thing and finishing up being a scratchbuilder that made nearly everything except rails and wheels (though I sometimes made those too) I think I've shown that I know how to do railway modelling according to the orthodox method.  I was devastated when I became ill with a severe form of narcolepsy and it simply became too dangerous for me to work with tools, - and power tools were definitely out! (Bye bye lathe).

 

Digital railway modelling was in every sense a lifesaver for me and dragged me out of the pits of depression so I owe the medium an enormous debt.  And the more I worked with it the more I discovered that many of the principles and methods I'd used previously carried over just fine into the digital medium.  Yes the tools were different, but the reasons for using them were the same.  The advantages of having no mess to clean up after a modelling session and nothing to spill or accidently cut myself with were absolutely a major plus; - and if I suddenly fell asleep in the middle of doing something it didn't matter in the slightest.

 

I still scratch build, but now I'm making textures, - digital images, - that can be used to skin a 3D mesh to create pre-grouping goods wagons and coaches.  It usually takes me several hours of harassing pixels to end up with something that I think is good enough to be seen in public.  It would be lovely if I could do 3D modelling, but narcolepsy has messed up the cognitive processes in my brain so it's not for lack of trying that I finally abandoned the whole idea.  Fortunately I already knew how to do graphics work before I became ill, but even so on a good day I'll make dozens of mistakes when creating textures.  Being a bloody minded little git I'm not about to give up though.

 

Through the Trainz forums I've discovered there a lot like me who had to give up 'real' railway modelling due to illness or increasing disability and they tell the same tale of digital railway modelling turning their lives around so that makes digital railway modelling pretty darn real in my book.

Annie, I admire you.

I guess, as we get older things begin to go wrong.  I was in a past life, keen on running around the badminton court.  I was never very good and tended to get in everyone else’s way, but I enjoyed it.  Similarly Olga and I took up English folk dancing, great fun and we made many friends, but then we hit the buffers when  I started with arthritis, having worn away the cartilage in my knees.

But, I am lucky.  I still have my marbles, at least, I think I have, and the arthritis has not reached my fingers yet, so being an ardent scratch builder, I can carry on with making things, sitting at my bench.  I am not very good with lathe work though, so would never try making my own wheels, so I bow to you for so doing.

Derek

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, webbcompound said:

 

Of course the existentialists have the secret "sourire en l'ame" (translated by my french teacher as a "soul smirk") which is almost certainely a precursor to silent (hollow) laughing

 

You probably need to be lounging around in a black roll neck sweater with an unlit gauloise dropping from your upper lip in order to carry off a sourire amer, which I suppose evidences the feeling of smugness attendant upon thinking up some profound way of depressing everyone (who isn't in on the joke).

 

You see, the French reinvented philosophy in modern times merely as a way to look cool at parties and get women into bed.  Unfortunately, no one explained to the Germans that this was all philosophy was actually for, and I'm afraid they took it all rather too seriously as a consequence. 

[uax6]

I have a very strong conviction that the world cannot possible be flat, and its one based on real evidence.... 

If it were flat, it would be completely bare... as the cats would have pushed everything off it..

 

Andy G

[Nearholmer]

3 minutes ago, uax6 said:

I have a very strong conviction that the world cannot possibly be flat

 

Likewise.

 

I am certain that it isn't flat, because there are uphill bits (quite a lot), and downhill bits (always fewe and far between).

[Donw]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Likewise.

 

I am certain that it isn't flat, because there are uphill bits (quite a lot), and downhill bits (always fewe and far between).

 

So the world must be like a hollow sphere with us on the inside  could that be right?

Don

 

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

And speaking of broad sunlit uplands how about some sheep covered ones courtesy of the pre-Raphaelites. Yes I know it's been on before but it is a pleasant vista in these strange times.

 

 

 

"After ewe"

"No. After EWE"....

 

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

 

You probably need to be lounging around in a black roll neck sweater with an unlit gauloise dropping from your upper lip in order to carry off a sourire amer, which I suppose evidences the feeling of smugness attendant upon thinking up some profound way of depressing everyone (who isn't in on the joke).

 

You see, the French reinvented philosophy in modern times merely as a way to look cool at parties and get women into bed.  Unfortunately, no one explained to the Germans that this was all philosophy was actually for, and I'm afraid they took it all rather too seriously as a consequence. 

 

Speaking of French philosophy, I was looking along my bookshelves for something to read after finishing "Men at Arms" when I found my copy of "The Plague" by Albert Camus.  "Too depressing", I thought.

Next to it I have a copy of "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure", by John Cleland.  This is not philosophical and not by a Frenchman, but would be entirely too stimulating for times like this!  I wouldn't even suggest exploring the Wikipedia article...

I suppose I'll just continue with Pratchett!

 

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

I am certain that it isn't flat, because there are uphill bits (quite a lot), and downhill bits (always fewe and far between).

 

But On Average its flat...

 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

I was thinking more of an infinite inclined plane, with a rough surface, upon which we are all destined to move in a net uphill direction.

[Dave John]

Hmm, looking at those sheep has anyone got a recipe for pre-Raphaelite mint sauce ?

[Donw]

Now I know there are probably many others in the same sort of position but I do wonder how long we can keep this up. My Sister and her husband are in continuous isolation due to  his COPD. Her youngest daughter and her husband are in continuous isolation as their son born prematurally at 24 weeks has  under developed lungs and was on oxygen for the first year or so.  My Sister son had been help with fetching shopping etc. but his young daughter has developed a temperature which has necessitated them going into isolation. His mother in law who shares their house is a NHS worker so cannot now work. Neither my sister's other daughter or myself can help as we live too far away. 

I fear those fit and able will be ran ragged. Bless all those helping out. My sister is busy sewing things for the NHS scrubs bags to keep they from contaminating  other clothes and headbands to stop the face shields from rubbing their foreheads. This organised by a District Nurse she knows.

 

Regards All

Don

[brianusa]

Sadly this virus respects no one from those that are infected to others who are virus free.  A term that means little as we have to go through the same hoops whether infected or not.  The same shortages, the same queues and safety procedures that we have come to accept these days.  It may be easier for some than others and it is to be hoped that any respite will be at the behest of sound medical advice rather than politicians, especially those who seek reelection and choose stupidly to cast loose the WHO for political reasons.

      Brian.

[Regularity]

8 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I was thinking more of an infinite inclined plane, with a rough surface, upon which we are all destined to move in a net uphill direction.

Sisyphean in style?

 

[Mrkirtley800]

My wife heard someone complaining that with the close down due to the virus, we are worse off and more restricted than in WW2.  Well, it is just not true, I lived through that and we are much better off now, no one is actually dropping bombs on us.

Derek

[robmcg]

4 hours ago, Mrkirtley800 said:

My wife heard someone complaining that with the close down due to the virus, we are worse off and more restricted than in WW2.  Well, it is just not true, I lived through that and we are much better off now, no one is actually dropping bombs on us.

Derek

 

There is actually no sensible comparison.

 

Moving quickly along, I had the marvellous experience yesterday of having two parcels delivered from England, both Ebay purchases from a few weeks ago, second-hand GWR 4003 'Lode Star' (s)  ... I have photographed one.

 

Aren't RTR models marvellous!

 

Quasi cigarette card style?

  

 

No editing of the model to speak of, even the much-derided green is 'as seen by camera'. I raised the dome tiny bit, may be wrong for 1925, not sure.

 

Verisimilitude is the order of the day, and it is even an Edwardian engine, in design and development. 

 

edit; I should add, given the posts which preceded this, that NZ is in total lockdown still, after three weeks, with few new cases, and very few deaths, the dozen or so being old people with pre-existing conditions, we were fortunate in our geographical isolation, have managed the 1,200 infections as most are clusters. I reiterate my sadness and sympathy for those in badly affected countries.

 

I have added another more stylised version of my pic because I do rather like the model!

 

 

Cheers

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by robmcg

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

13 hours ago, Donw said:

 

So the world must be like a hollow sphere with us on the inside  could that be right?

Don

 

 

It would make sewage disposal a bit tricky I suspect ............